“Avengers” Breaks Records By “The Dark Knight,” Maybe “Harry Potter”

At $18.7 million, The Avengers midnight debut on Friday pushed The Dark Knight out of the top spot for the best superhero midnight premiere of all time. Although its midnight premiere figures are meek compared to the midnight earnings of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, The Avengers pulled in a massive $80.5 million total for its opening day revenue (Thursday midnight showings plus Friday daytime), making the film the second-highest-grossing premiere in history after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

The Avengers is already halfway to beating the opening weekend of Harry Potter. Continuing at this current rate, The Avengers could very likely find itself going over the $200 million mark for the weekend as Spiderman 3 did in its opening weekend. The Avengers may even be on its way to breaking the records of Iron Man 3, which grossed $320 million in its opening weekend.

Considering the movie’s overseas revenue has already passed $300 million as of Thursday, The Avengers seems on a pace to exceed expectations and become one of the highest-grossing films of all time.